Tom Cruise and Olga Kurylenko on Set for Joseph Kosinski’s OBLIVION

The first crop of set photos debuted today from director Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise and Olga Kurylenko. Though the plot of the sci-fi pic features Cruise as a veteran soldier banished to the surface of a ruined, post-apocalyptic world, these images are fairly bright and sunny (okay, maybe a little rainy) with a lot of smiling faces and intact infrastructure in the background. Are these pre-apocalyptic scenes from the opening of the film, a flashback within the story or just stars coming to work and smiling at the waiting cameras? Hard to tell at this point. It’s also hard to tell exactly what this film is about without an official synopsis. Hit the jump for more on the story of Oblivion and a look at the first set photos. [Update: We’ve removed the unofficial images.]

Kosinski, the director of TRON: Legacy, is following his debut directorial effort up with Oblivion. At Cinemacon, Steve got to see some early footage and confirmed more plot details: Cruise’s character is tasked with repairing ships that hunt down the aliens who destroyed our planet. When a mysterious woman (Andrea Riseborough) crash-lands nearby, their encounter sets off an eye-opening chain of events. The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The screenplay was adapted by William Monahan (The Departed) from the Kosinski and Arvid Nelson comicbook. Look for Oblivion to bow on April 26th, 2013.

The production had previously shot in Louisiana, but the following images were shot near New York City’s Empire State Building.